


Still There

by BlueWorld



Category: Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: But not a Good Person, Daryl Has Issues, Gen, Merle is a Good Brother, Minor Character Death, Non-Linear Existance, Past Child Abuse, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-16
Updated: 2014-05-16
Packaged: 2018-01-24 23:35:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 688
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1621055
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlueWorld/pseuds/BlueWorld
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Some things never change.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Still There

Some things never change.

The world can end, the dead can rise and the living can become walking time bombs, but some things stay the same. Sometimes things just can't change. Sometimes you can't let them.

Merle is a good brother. He protects Daryl. He stands between him and their Pa when he's drunk raving mad and has a broken beer bottle in one hand and his belt in the other. Merle's not a good _person_ – he never stood up for Ma when Pa was feeling angry – but he's a good _brother_.

He never _stood_ between them, though, he _stands_ between them, because he's still there and at some point in time, some place in the infinite universe, it's still happening. Somewhere where time is meaningless, their Pa is still pushing to get past Merle so he can 'knock some sense into his no good, idiot of a son' and Merle isn’t letting him pass. Merle once stood between a twelve year old Daryl and an angry mountain lion and never even flinched. Afterwards, after he'd scared it off, he laughed it off and said it was easier than fending off Pa in one of his moods.

Somewhere, sometime, someplace, Merle is still and always will be looking out for him – and damn if Daryl doesn’t know they’re both going to hell, but he'll keep Merle a seat warm – and is the only thing standing between Daryl and some nasty fate.

Merle is a good brother. _Is_. Not was.

Merle taught him how to skin and gut game, is still teaching him _somewhere, sometime, someplace_. Daryl watches Merles large, calloused hands handle a long, curved blade with more skill and maneuverability than a man his size should have. Then Daryl tries but his fumbling fingers always drop the knife or poke a hole in the game's stomach or slice his own thumb open. Merles not patient, not by any means of the word, but he does toss Daryl a strip of cloth to bandage up his thumb with and show him how to do it again. He tells him to "get it right this time, little brother, 'cause we're running out of squirrels!"

Merle taught, is _still_ teaching, him how to fish, too. He shows him how to tie knots and cast lines and tell if that's really a fish biting or just a random bit of reed snagged on his hook.

In a lot of way, Merles a good brother and a good stand in father, something he will always deny fervently.

"I ain't got no time fer kids, little brother," he says. "I'd be a shit father anyway. I mean, look at our only example!" but Daryl thinks he's done pretty good, because Merle practically raised him and he turned out okay didn’t he? Merle taught him how to hunt and clean kills and fish and ride horses and build a fire and how to _survive_ , something his Pa should have taught him, but Merle was the one to step up to the plate and he turned out pretty damn fine in his own opinion.

And Merle is still teaching him somewhere in time.

Somewhere, sometime, someplace, his brother is alive and breathing and speaking. Somewhere his brother's eyes aren't glazed over with sickly green and pale, milky pink hues. Sometime his brother still has two hands. Someplace they didn’t get separated when the world ended. Hell, sometime the dead never even started rising.

It turns out, Merle's the one who's going to be saving his little brother a seat in hell, right next to him in the area reserved for people exactly like them. They don’t agree on a lot of things, baseball, blondes being more attractive than redheads, that Korean kid, but they're similar enough. Daryl's pretty sure they're going to the same place.

Some things never change.

Daryl's pretty sure the world can end, the dead can rise and the living can become walking time bombs, but no way in hell is he going to let some things change. He can't let some things change, because somewhere in time, Merle is _still there_.


End file.
